Déjà Review: this review was first published in July 2005 and the recording is still available.

A Recital by Two Pianists
Steven Kings, Christopher Northam (pianos)
rec. live, 14 May 2005, Bristol Music Club, Clifton, UK
Dunelm Records DRD0243 [73]

This concert from May 2005 is a rewarding mixture of music from the sixty years up to 2002.

If there is a theme running through much of the programme it is of variation form, mostly inspired by historical models. The finest item for me is Robin Holloway’s recomposition of Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations. The complete work takes 90 minutes as, more or less, does Bach’s original. To make things more ‘comfortable’ for a concert audience, Holloway has devised a Suite of eight of the first fifteen variations, preceded by Bach’s theme and capped by a shortened reprise of it. None of this departs too far from Bach but enough new and richly inventive material is added to make it so much more than a transcription.

To an extent the same is true of Lutosławski’s version of Paganini’s Variations on that often-varied Caprice. This draws from these accomplished pianists their most virtuosic playing. David Bedford’s Hoquetus David takes its theme from the medieval church composer Machaut. A “hocket” has the theme broken into one- or two-bar sections. I liked its energy.

Jolyon Laycock’s piece would fare better with a less nonsensical title – possibly “Icebreaker Variations” as it was, before being re-jigged for two pianos, composed for the Icebreaker Band. I hope it does fare better as there is plenty to enjoy in variations ranging from the fiercely rugged to the fluently lyrical. The writing for duo is idiomatic.

For the rest, Martinů’s Dances are infectiously rhythmic, though I must admit that I found the dotted rhythms of the first a little relentless; the third, the longest, is the pick of them. John Pitts’ Changes is 3½ minutes of minimalism and its principal, indeed only, interest lies in a 15 quaver figure being set against another with 14: tricky, especially as this is the only piece here played by four hands on one piano. However all four hands do finish together.

Poulenc’s Élégie, from his later, “Romantic” period, is a delicious interlude, so much so that I was surprised I had not encountered it before.

Congratulations to the Severnside Composers’ Alliance for: (a) putting on such a stimulating programme and, (b) attracting an audience whose silence is exemplary.

The recording is equally so; it does not “get in the way of” appreciation of this relatively little-known music and one cannot ask for more than that.

Strongly recommended to enterprising listeners.

Philip L. Scowcroft

Help us financially by purchasing from

Contents
Bohuslav MARTINŮ (1890-1959)
Three Czech Dances (1949)
David BEDFORD (b.1932)
Hoquetus David (1987)
John PITTS (b.1976)
Changes (1995)
Robin HOLLOWAY (b.1943)
Gilded Goldbergs Suite (1997)
Jolyon LAYCOCK (b.1946)
Die! A1 Sparrow (2002)
Francis POULENC (1899-1963)
Élégie (1959)
Witold LUTOSŁAWSKI (1913-1994)
Paganini Variations (1941)